Movies, TV, and old C-64 games : Mini-game Design in Stargate Worlds, part one
My name is Steve Williams, and I am a MMO gamer and also a casual gamer. Give me an MMO, and I’ll play it. Give me a simple Flash game and I’ll play it. Wouldn’t it be fun if someone could mix the two flavors together and make a peanut butter cup of gameplay that would satisfy both MMO fun and casual fun?
So let’s talk about what mini-games are doing in a self-respecting MMO like Stargate Worlds - let’s talk about putting the peanut butter into the chocolate and making something tasty.
Since time immemorial, or at least the past few years, MMOs have focused upon two things: Killing stuff (and getting their loot) and making stuff for people to go kill stuff (and get their loot). As building games goes, that’s a pretty good spread of features, and it’s not too hard to make that work.
Recently, however, the thought struck the minds of some developers out in the deserts of Arizona that a lot of fiction is built not around killing things (and getting their loot), but in solving problems, thinking up solutions, and generally interacting with the world in some manner.
If you watch almost any episode of Stargate SG-1 (or Atlantis), you’ll see that the basic plot revolves around getting into big trouble, and then solving a puzzle or working a gizmo or device to get out of big trouble. That’s what we call good TV.
Enter mini-games for Stargate Worlds. In SGW, we will present situations in which you can solve a puzzle, can work a gizmo or device, and get out of big trouble. Instead of walking into a room and shooting a big, flashing-red Jaffa until he dies and rifling through his bloody clothes for goodies, you will do all the above in order to get to the real goal: hacking into a reactor control to save a civilization from a disatrous meltdown.
So enter my job. As a systems designer, I get to take the basic concepts like “hack into a reactor and save the world” and turn it into a fun game you can solve in a few short seconds. The process behind this is what we’ll talk about here.
The first step to designing a mini-game for SGW is to identify what the player will be doing, what we call the “verb” of the mini-game. To continue our reactor reprogramming example above, the verb would be “hack.”
What does “hack” mean? For inspiration we go to two sources: movies/TV, and computer/console/board/card games. In movies and TV, we have many role models for “hackers” - Indiana Jones, Corporal Hicks, Axel Foley… and of course Sam Carter. In computer gaming, there are many, many examples, like Paradroid.
So at this point you have a lot of cool characters in your head, and you have lots of fun games in your head - a primary skill for a designer is to have a massive database of references in your head - and you distill those things that are most interesting to you.
For a hack-type game, we have two important role models in Corporal Hicks and Axel Foley, and a number of hack-type games like Pipe Dream, or Paradroid. Hicks had a lot of problems, but when it came to hacking into locks and computers, he was competent, confident, and cool. Axel Foley is the same way - no matter how dangerous the situation, Foley would whip out a MacGyveresque solution, like using a chewing gum wrapper to break into a secure building. We want that vibe. In Paradroid, you hack robots and take them over by manipulating the power flow to their circuits. We want that vibe too.
So now we have a basic idea to work with, and we have some mental references to try and match. There’s two ways to proceed from here - one is define the parameters of the game, and the other is to define the look and feel of the game. For Hack, I started with the feel - “find and cut the red wire.” The closest type of game that corresponds to that are what are known as hidden object games, like 5 Differences. As I was designing a hidden object game that emulates a tense situation, I worked a little more on the feel - I wanted visual noise, a logical but confusing timer ticking down fast, sound feedback that was both ambiguous but useful (you can solve this game with your eyes closed), and lots of red herrings to work through.
It was at this point I had an epiphany - one of my absolute favorite movies is Sneakers, starring everyone cool. In Sneakers, there is a scene in which the blind hacker “Whistler” is using sound signals from a probe attached to various phone trunk lines to hack into the phone switch box for a building.
This became my holy grail - working with Nick LaMartina, I devised a series of sounds that are derived from phone phreaker lore - the Red Box tone, a dial tone, 2600 hz - the sorts of sounds Whistler in Sneakers would be interested in…
So now I had a game - using sounds and your eyes, you need to find a wire hidden in a bundle of wires and clip it.
Thus, we moved to parameters. This is where math and the psychology of “fun” collide. Did we want to cut only one wire? Was the timer constant? Were there “green wires” that if you cut them caused bad things to happen? What about other clues than sound (the player may have their sound turned off!)… and we’re off to the races.
You get a lot of numbers on paper, you get a lot of ideas specced out in design, and you stop.
Stopping is always the hard part - especially with a mini-game!
Over-design is a tough beast to slay. You always want one more feature, one more bell or whistle. Hack only needed a few features: confusing timer, bundle of wires, visually noisy design, and the tones that play when you interact with the wires.
In other mini-games, paper prototyping would occur, but with Hack it was apparent what few features were needed, and which ones (sadly, with a heavy, heavy heart) needed to be cut.
The second to last hurdle: explaining your design to the coders, artists, sound folks, and other designers who would be building, integrating, and incorporating your game. If an encylopedic knowledge of culture and gaming is a primary tool for a designer, a secondary tool is simply this: the ability to explain a design to an artist and a coder, both of which normally have mindsets that are downright alien to your sane, normal mindset.
Building any game is like watching the ocean. Progress on a feature advances and recedes like waves - you get the prototype, you test it, and then it goes away for another pass, it comes back, you test it - you give feedback, you balance, and you send it back…
And so we come to the last part of building a mini-game, “polish.”
Unlike large systems or single games with no hooks, the mini-game in Stargate Worlds is linked in many, many ways to other parts of the game. You get experience for completing a mini-game. You get loot. You can register and have NPCs call you to do mini-games for them… all of these are fraught with peril as balance issues. Do we want players kicking back with a cup of tea and play mini-games to level up? What does it mean when you get uber loot from clipping a wire in less than 12 seconds? Questions, discussions, compromises - the game industry is based on collaborative effort of a lot of passionate, creative people, and an MMO is possibly the razor’s edge of this aspect of game design.
In the end though, you get to send out the mini-game to a bunch of testers, listen as the sounds you helped create are beeping and booping from dozens of speakers, listen as aggravation at loss and the joy of victory comes from what started as a simple verb written on a sheet of paper: “hack.”
That’s the point you reach over to the others who worked on the mini-game and shake hands. And since we have a game to ship, you wipe your brow and grab the next verb from the list…
May 23rd, 2008 at 11:29 am
Some good ideas bro. Pretty cool to see Mini games in an MMO.
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Excellent stuff - it sounds like “the art of game design” is really being employed in SGW rather than the same old grind, though to be fair to games like WoW there is an element of “mini-games” but yes, it’s 95% grind - kill, loot, deliver, kill, loot, repeat.
The approach to putting mini games in to MMOs will definiately set SGW apart, but one thing worries me… with WoW it is so easy to see how to solve a puzzle (quest), find the next thing to kill and so on. There are hundreds(?) of websites dedicated it and you can even get an in game mod that guides you through the quests - fine for levelling fast, but it takes the fun out of it.
What new MMOs need is some element (e.g. your mini games) that is never the same with randomly generated parts. This will keep the game fresh and new every time you play - even if you repeat the same mini game.
On the other hand … once you’ve levelled up and decide to start an alt, you don’t want to have to go through all that again. So the game should either encourage people NOT to create alts, or make it easy to level up if you already have a main.
… and then you’re back to your questions, discussions and compromises… good luck! And can’t wait to play.
Cheers,
Chris
May 23rd, 2008 at 12:53 pm
This sounds awesome game design on the mini games part. Very interesting to say the least. Keep it up!
May 23rd, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Before I read this article I was really, really enthusiastic about the game. Now I’m nuts for it. I love the idea that this isn’t a hack ‘n slash, but a full world you can interact with - the bit about having NPCs contact you to solve mini-games for them slayed me.
I couldn’t agree more with the importance of these minigames. I’ve played a Stargate LARP (hmmmm, military tat…) where one of the key mechanics was a simple card game to represent hacking into different bits of technology. And it was absolutely engrossing. The prospect of being able to deal with a similar system online is, frankly, mouthwatering.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:41 pm
WOW, I mean just hearing a little of what may come in the SGW mini-games only gets me more excited and wanting the release of the game to be even closer! ive waited two years for this game i think i can wait a little longer.
May 24th, 2008 at 2:06 am
I don’t like the idea of solving a puzzle by listening to sounds, some people like to mute the game or (like me) listen to music while they play it, alt-tabbing to turn off winamp every time I’m about to solve a certain type of puzzle can get annoying.
May 24th, 2008 at 8:16 am
Steve,
Thanks for the awesome info on designing the mini-games! This is probably the most intriguing feature of SGW for me. I hope you’ll be able to tell us more about how archaeologists will specialize with them. (Do archies get more time, or easier puzzles?) I’m also curious if archies can use their mini-game specialty in combat or PvP.
Keep up the hard work! I know you guys want to make as exciting a Stargate game as we want to see.
May 25th, 2008 at 6:11 am
it sounds cool. but…when i read about this all i could thought is: what about crystals? goaul’d technology, asgard technology, The Gate itself is working with crystals, i just hope you guys thought that not all civilizations in the stargate universe work with wires
May 25th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
It is great to hear of the inclusion of more interactive elements to hopefully move along a story. Many MMO’s as of late as you have put it seem to be stuck in this hack and slash era of gameplay, where everything seems to be procedurally generated and used a million times over. I am very impressed that for such a massive undertaking you have decided to take on such a project as incorporating mini games to break up the regular flow of the MMO. Maybe a few MMO’s should take note. I will be looking forward to playing.
May 25th, 2008 at 11:22 pm
This sounds very interesting and fun. Such a mini-game component is rather unique in the MMO world as far as I can think now in my sleep deprived state so I am eagerly looking forward to having a crack at them!
May 26th, 2008 at 12:10 am
Sounds interesting. I’ve always been more interested in the artifacts and puzzle-solving aspects of Stargate more than the combat sequences, so this sort of thing sounds right up my alley — especially if you can do this instead of going out to “bring back 10 Jaffa heads” or whatever (not that that would be especially realistic to the series).
May 26th, 2008 at 5:24 am
Was just thinking…wouldn’t The Sentinel (SG1 S5) meet all of your hack requirements? Crystals instead of wires, but moving them creates sound changes and only the corect harmony works (shield generator anyway).
May 26th, 2008 at 6:26 am
This all sounds extremely interesting, and I look forward to seeing how it all comes together in the game. I just hope my old man brain will be able to wrap around it.
May 26th, 2008 at 10:52 am
Oh, nice explanation of mini game design.
I loved to read it.
Thank you for sharing and can’t wait to the second part. (;
Greetz,
K
May 26th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
well written, i cant wait to play mini games all day, then jump through a gate explores some ailen world and play more mini games!!!
May 27th, 2008 at 7:18 am
Woot…. someone who liked Sneakers as much as I did.
SETEC ASTRONOMY!
May 28th, 2008 at 1:33 am
Hej, this sounds really great! I swear, when SGW will come out, i’ll stop playing WoW and i start playing SGW!!!
Looking forward to new news
Greetz
SiRoN
May 29th, 2008 at 5:23 pm
(very few of these words are copied from other people and changed to my own words)
Having some form of puzzle games would be great. In allot of Hero movie’s/series they have allot of puzzles which they need to solve. Moving pieces to solve the puzzle(small or very huge objects), repairing things, solving language sign’s(maybe warnings or an guide), new planet/alien/races languages(like hero’s and villains cant understand each other, but they can learn the skill by going to a contact-teacher-guide that understand your language and the other language), removing blocking objects, ect.
Smallvile - Know your enemy. Find out what his weakness is. Try everything……. or find the information by already know sources.
What does Superman when he’s not doing Superman stuff?
From apart enjoying life, he’s investigating odd/suspicious information, solving mystery’s. Isn’t that part of being a Hero to?
Spiderman did the same thing.
What does a villain do at day time?
Planning/searching for places where he’s going to strike next at Night when he turns into a Werewolf.
Or gathering information how to crack open an bank save. Or how to conquer an stronghold or kingdom.
It gives the arctypes of Scientist and Archaeologist something besides combat to do really something heroic. Could even make those type quest profession/class specific.
I personally would like to see some group quest being designed that make it a requirement to have these professions/classes. Like in the show of Stargate when everyone but Jackson would lay down covering fire and he had to read the glyphs to save the day.
Ingame that would work out something like a timer that would go faster for the correct class and based on some skill they’ve trained. Reading ancient or what not. Putting the right symbols in the right order. Repairing the device to be able to work again. While the combat types had to hold off the mobs from killing the one doing the “hard” part. Things like that would add to the uniqueness of SWG.
Ofcourse we will needs some hints/tips of our contacts. But i hate the message system tho, makes me feel so dumb and useless(running from one contact to an other, and back, and back, ect). Id like to challenge my brain!!!! In a fun playing way. No more “running-to-contact’s-missions” in order to complete it, or to get going on with the mission.
But dont use to difficult English, if you use old English language or use terms thats not found in a normal dictionary then i will have a problem. My English is basic, words i’ve learned are from playing games and forums. I always have an dictionary next to my keyboard. This is why i cant play LoTR online. I really loved to play the game, but the quests are to HARD to read and to understand. These Movies are amazing.
So are we forced to take messages to contacts/contacts, and they solve the puzzles?
Or can we take part in solving them? And can/may we solve all of it?
That would be SOOOooo Great!!
This would make us more Hero, more being part of the mission. This would make/require us to read the mission text story-line a bit more, because we need the hints/tips to be able to solve the case. A few things im not so happy about in CoH i play are: I just get sick of all the missions that looks the same to me now. Same buildings, same enemies, same objectives….. “oh eh, i just click on this glowy and then….. MISSION COMPLETED!”
Yes, i dont read the mission text story-line anymore. I haven’t done that in an MMO since uh … since… uh I realized that all missions were created equal and you never had to read a single dang thing to get the job done! In CoH, the first 10 levels i’ve read most of the mission text, the next 2 yrs after that i just looked at the objectives. They made it a little to easy, don’t you think?
* No more mission text story-lines if i dont need to know this knowledge to play the mission.
And i hate level gaps. In other games its not possible to play with a higher/lower level friends. As a 2yrs CoH player i love the “Sidekick/Mentor system”, one of the best reasons for me to keep playing the game, with my online friends. And btw those missions give the small rooms effect(elevators), too narrow. Very few of these missions are different. No more too narrow/small missions where i cant use my Super TravelPowers without getting bumped against walls and ceilings, please.
I would welcome puzzles and more thinking/paying attention to clues. Yes… yes I would!
I wonder how different Champions-Online will be. It will be very difficult choice which game i will play, i think. Thats Champions-Online vs SGW for me. At this moment SGW score’s 2 points more because they have Beta’s for players. And they’re developing a totally different game-play-style. They are going to implement games like puzzles/braintrainers, I’ve yet not seen at CO / CoH.
A good example for some really nice puzzles is the game Soulreaver. Its a single player game, but that no reason why it cant be made mmo. Or cant be used in SGW.
The puzzles are mostly a must to play in order to get further.
We also could arrange that the puzzle may unlock a certain bonus. Right?
* Like a secret room, for more exp and bigger mission bonus reward.
* Like a bonus clue that unlocks an extra rare inside or outside the mission mission.
* CoH has side missions inside bank missions, which could unlock a badge or Temp Power. (most of these are true Puzzles to solve.)
June 2nd, 2008 at 12:13 am
this is what i call a great description how a designer works and feels… i made such experience by my selfe quite often… and that’s what drives you, what pushes you to go further and further… a great article!
June 2nd, 2008 at 10:04 pm
That is the most interesting explanation of game design I’ve ever read. In a way it reminds me of that old board game Operation mixed with old adventure games like Maniac Mansion.
Was this process done in days, hours, minutes, etc? It seems that adding all these puzzles into the game would take a great deal of time and considering the game is looking at a Q4 launch it seems a lot of great ideas will get cut due to time constraints. I much enjoyed this particular description of one of the possible puzzles in the game. Its my hope you guys come up with even more puzzles maybe a few that are a little more complicated.
Keep up the great work! This game will be a nice refresher after all the other mmorpgs that seem to be cut from the same mold.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:45 am
Hey There
I like the idea around mini games. When Star wars Galaxies first came out they had some great mini games. The one I liked the best was when one team was out to destroy an opposite faction, they had to “slice” the terminals. These were small mini games inside a greater game, which allowed the person slicing to have fun under the pressure. These little mini games could be completed quickly if the person understood the process. I would like to see more mini games like this that were challenging but at the same time possible to complete. Either way I will be picking up Stargate Worlds.
Thanks guys
Ben
September 26th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Speaking of Commodore 64s, I was rummaging through some old boxes the other day and came across an original 5 1/2″ floppy of Zork and it got me wondering where I would be today if I hadn’t started playing video games… I’d probably be developing them!
Before Zork was released (that and Jumpman Jr), I was developing my own text-based adventure game. Of course, I only had the C64 console hooked up to a black and white TV (the color monitor and floppy drive came next X-mas) so the only way I could save my work was to leave it on. After twelve long months of browsing through the back pages of COMPUTE!’s Gazette and bouncing ideas off of the resident Dungeons and Dragons geeks, enter Zork.
Once I got hooked on it, I lost interest in my own game, and this trend has carried on throughout the years. I can’t count the number of times I’ve installed OGRE, Torque, Blender, Quark, and others and started on my own project, only to be inevitably side-tracked by the next latest and greatest gaming phenomenon, and just when I start to get burned out on one (ie WoW), a new one springs up (ie SWG)…
I wish everyone else would quit making games for a while so I’d become bored enough to make my own! Granted, it’s probably easier to stay focused if you’re getting paid…
Seriously though, kudos to all of you for having the patience to make these great games possible and providing us with years of entertainment.
Now, if we can just come up with a cure for carpotunnel syndrome…
DJSP